Thank you for sharing your memories of Glenn and your heartfelt messages.
If there is one thing Glenn would have hoped for, it is that his family would be okay.
Where that seems impossible right now, the kindness and generosity we have received and the wonderful memories you’ve shared on these pages are helping us work towards being okay, one day at a time.
We want you to know we are thinking of you too. Glenn’s story touched many people in different ways and his death sent a ripple far and wide.
We love that his spirit is carried in each of you and knowing that makes the finality of his death feel slightly less so. Please continue to share your stories with us here.
We love knowing how Glenn’s/Dad’s story lives on.
Thank you all.
My thoughts have been with you over these past few weeks – from the start of the adventure, to the so very sad ending. Glenn was truly one of the nicest people I have met. He loved his family and embraced life fully. We talked so many times of our respective daughters and their adventures, our love of the outdoors and how grateful we were to live here. Thank you to all who have shared their memories – a true celebration of a life well lived. Glenn will be so missed and I feel much gratitude to have known him.
And thank you MaryLou for sharing Glenn’s sailing adventures and final days with us. My thoughts continue with you and your girls as you learn how to be again as a family. Sheila
On this Thanksgiving day, we give thanks for the friendship of Glenn, Marylou, Claire and Nicola. They have been a treasured part of our lives for nearly 20 years. Our hearts break for Glenn’s three girls at the tragic circumstances of his death and their devastating loss.
For us, Glenn was a dear friend and a ready help in times of need: building a walk-in shower before Mike’s knee surgery; erecting, with Nicola’s help, a cozy backyard cottage to store our earthquake supplies; and resolving any number of household emergencies.
Mike was only too pleased to be able to mentor Glenn in one more of his ambitious projects (for a first-time writer): to develop his notes and thoughts into a book-length narrative. Glenn so dearly wanted to place on record just how his drive to accomplish a next-to-impossible mission had arisen from his boyhood. The mission: to sail single-handed, non-stop, unsupported, on a circumnavigation — and if that wasn’t hard enough, to do so west-about. For much of the journey he would be sailing against the wind, and that wind would be the Roaring Forties! His book would have numbered among the great adventure stories of our time, and its loss is another aspect to the tragedy.
We followed his voyages, amazed at and terrified by his courage, rejoicing at his return, no matter what the circumstances. Including this time. We are grateful for the generous people who helped to bring him home. We thank friends who helped to organize the Go-Fund-Me page, which we pray will continue to help his family with the unexpected and enormous financial burden of his hospitalization in the US.
We are indebted to his family for their prodigious support in helping Glenn reach for his dream. Marylou’s ongoing work on his website enabled us and others around the globe to follow his progress, and marvel at his physical adventures as well as his internal journey, so generously shared.
We hope they will be able to draw on their considerable strength to eventually come to peace with his passing, grateful to have been an essential ingredient in the life and adventures of this extraordinary man.
We’ll never forget the image of Glenn at our front door, calling out his customary greeting of “Hello Laylands!” His upbeat energy and goodwill made any day brighter.
Jean and Michael Layland
Oh so hard to find the words. Thank YOU for being an inspiring example of a true family in every sense of the word. We were so sorry to hear the news of Glenn’s passing on to his next big adventure. We keep having memories of watching him build beautiful cedar structures and having great chats with him over coffee, laughing and laughing. Glenn ALWAYS talking of his family with such love. Also we cannot forget visits to “the library” on Westwind II!
Hoping you three are keeping each other strong.
Regards,
Stevie & Dean
Aloha,
Thanks Glenn and his family for allowing us to be a small pat of a wonderful story of a “life well lived”.
regards from your Hawaiian friends ,
George and Mary